Roots by the River

“Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me— put it into practice . And the God of peace will be with you” (Philippians 4:9). This is comprehensive: everything you have learned, received, heard, or seen. Paul said something similar to the Corinthians: “I am not writing this to shame you, but to warn you, as my dear children. Even though you have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. Therefore I urge you to imitate me. For this reason I am sending to you Timothy, my son whom I love, who is faithful in the Lord. He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church…Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so a...

“Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age’” (Matthew 28:18-20). It is relatively easy to teach and to learn the commands of God. These commands are made up of sentences that can be memorized. The Christian church has been teaching the commands for centuries. I will now misquote verse 20: "and teaching them all of the commands I commanded you." Here is it corrected: "teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you." I cannot teach obedience to commands as easily as I teach commands. But that is what we are told to do. How can I teach obedience? By being obedient myself. Paul did not hesitate to teach obedience this way: “Even though you have ten thousa...

“When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field’” (Matthew 9:36-38). Even without a revival, the harvest is plentiful. The shortage is in harvesters. More people apparently are ready to enter the kingdom than there are people ready to help them in. The instruction is to pray that God would send more people as workers into the harvest field. To pray that prayer should not be too difficult to do. Please pray for the many Christians who are living mediocre Christian lives. They might have many unconfessed, willful sins and also hidden, great transgressions. “Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. Then I will be blameless, innocent of great transgression” (Psalm 19:13). Please pray for the overwhelming convicting p...

“So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat’ or ‘What shall we drink’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own” (Matt. 6:31-34). This has been a favorite portion of Scripture for over forty years. It tells us, in effect, that God made us with stomachs. He knows we need food. He made us without fur. He knows we need clothes. The pagans do not seem to know this about God, so they worry. Do we want to copy the pagans when we know God? There are two requirements laid on us: ·        Don’t worry. Worry is sin, for it is unbelief in God’s faithfulness. ·        Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness. This is trust in God’s fait...

“For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness, and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord” (Ephesians 5:8-10). This verse tells us what you were and what you are, and from this we have two assignments: 1. Live like what you are (goodness, righteousness, and truth). 2. Find out what pleases the Lord. How do we live like children of the light? By grace! We are saved by grace. We live by grace. We are forgiven by grace. We obey by grace. How do we find out what pleases the Lord? First, want to know what pleases the Lord. Second, read the Bible looking for truths to obey by grace. Third, pray for spiritual acumen when you are reading the Bible. This post coordinates with today's reading in the Same Page Summer Bible Reading Challenge . If you are not in a daily reading plan, please join us at TotheWord.com . We would love to have you reading with us.

This is a chapter from The Heart by Bessie Wilson. You can find  The Heart on Amazon, Audible, ccmbooks.org/bookstore, and the Canon+ app. “This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything” (1 John 3:19-20). What is it that helps us set our hearts at rest in His presence? The preceding verse (verse 18) establishes the context: “Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.” The immediate context is that if we see a brother in need and we have no pity, the question is, “How can the love of God be in us?” Years ago, just after Mother’s Day, a friend (the wife of a pastor) told me that her young daughter had defied her and gone to a public park. She was wondering how to handle this when the child returned. My friend had been folding clean laundry and was about to take it to her daughter’s room when...

Jesus said, “Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out—those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned” (John 5:28-29). This teaching in the New Testament is not taught often in the Christian churches today. Here is Paul’s teaching on the same subject: “I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that i...

Have you ever noticed that you have told the gospel with great clarity (with or without apologetics) to a very intelligent person and that after you have finished this clear presentation, he had no idea what you were talking about? Here are a few biblical reasons why this is: “The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit” (1 Corinthians 2:14). They cannot understand because they do not have the Spirit. “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4:4). They cannot see because they have been blinded by the evil one. “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not...

“But where sin increased, grace increased all the more” (Romans 5:20). My extra-biblical reading does not follow any pattern, but there is a lot of history in it. The history includes ancient and modern, Asian and European, African and South American. Whenever or wherever history occurs, it is a story of increasing sin. This would be depressing if it were not for our assurance that grace increases all the more. A history book can glorify the actions of men so the sin does not sound as bad. That, however, is only sugar-coating the story. The real blessing is that God assures us that grace is more abundant than sin . In addition to reading history, I find another reminder of the increase of sin. That is my daily contact with people who are in sin or affected by the sin of others. Again, I am grateful for the over-abundance of grace. It is this over-abundance of grace that gives us victory and triumph. “But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumph, and through us s...

“He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name. Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit” (Psalm 147:4-5). These are two of many verses which speak in a limited way of God’s unlimited power and knowledge. Here are a few more: “By the word of the LORD were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth. For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm” (Psalm 33:6, 9). “He replied, ‘You of little faith, why are you so afraid?’ Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm. The men were amazed and asked, ‘What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!’” (Matthew 8:26-27). God commanded the inanimate. There were no ears to hear, no volition to decide, no reason to consider, and yet the stars, the wind, and the waves obeyed. This post coordinates with today's reading in the To the Word! Bible Reading Challenge . If you are not in a daily reading pl...

“Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He hath redeemed from the hand of the Enemy” (Psalm 107:2). “And the Lord's servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will” (2 Timothy 2:24-26). “When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life” (Romans 6:20-22). “Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death...

“Sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth. Sing to the LORD, praise his name; proclaim his salvation day after day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples” (Psalm 96:1-3). Sing, praise, proclaim, and declare. In order to declare His glory, we have to know what it is. Words alone will not do it. Experience will be part of it. “Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and glory are in his sanctuary. Ascribe to the LORD, O families of nations, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength. Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; bring an offering and come into his courts. Worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness; tremble before him, all the earth” (Psalm 96:6-9). Splendor, majesty, strength, glory, worship, and holiness are a few of the words. Ask for the experience. This post coordinates with today's reading in the To the Word! Bible Reading Challenge . If you are not in a daily reading plan, please join us at To...

Are you fearful of death? Or ready for it? Or glad for it? Most people just ignore it, knowing it’s going to happen, but not now and not soon. Sometimes we don’t have a choice. On September 26, 1950, when I was 22 years old, I was with the Navy in the Sea of Japan off the coast of Korea. The gunnery officer spotted some box cars on a railroad siding near the shore. The captain decided to close the range and destroy them with gunfire. We were at battle stations. My battle station was in the gunnery plotting room one deck below the main deck on the port side of the ship. I was the officer in charge of gunnery plot. I received a telephone call from my boss, the gunnery officer. He ordered me up to the main battery director above the bridge, where he was stationed with the range finder. I objected, because we were at general quarters (preparing for battle), and it is a court-martial offense to leave your battle station when the ship is at general quarters. He ordered me to come up anyway...

“ Oh, that you would bear with me in a little folly—and indeed you do bear with me. For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ” (2 Cor. 11:1-3). St. Paul was concerned about people deceiving other people away from the simplicity that is in Christ. All (or at least most) denominations of the Christian church have made salvation in Christ a little more complicated than the Bible makes it. Rather than drawing attention to all of these complications, I thought I would go through the Gospel with simple, biblical words. God God is . God is love. God so loved the world. The world was the object of His love. The expression of His love is giving. What He gave was His only-begotten Son. He gave what was most valuable to Him. Sin came into ...

“Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure” (1 John 3:2-3). “After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words” (1 Thessalonians 4:17-18). “He who testifies to these things says, ‘Yes, I am coming soon.’ Amen. Come, Lord Jesus” (Revelation 22:20). You may have wondered what my eschatology is. I do not often speak about it. These few words summarize my anticipation: hope; purifies; encourage; “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.” This keeps me from differing with the saints on the order of events at the end time. This post coordinates with today's reading in the To the Word! Bible Reading Challenge . If you are not in a...

In Zechariah chapters 12-14, there are about 17 references to “that day.” Here are a few of them. “On that day a fountain will be opened to the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and impurity. ‘On that day, I will banish the names of the idols from the land, and they will be remembered no more,’ declares the LORD Almighty. ‘I will remove both the prophets and the spirit of impurity from the land’” (Zech. 13:1-2). “On that day living water will flow out from Jerusalem, half to the eastern sea and half to the western sea, in summer and in winter. The LORD will be king over the whole earth. On that day there will be one LORD, and his name the only name” (Zech. 14:8-9). “On that day HOLY TO THE LORD will be inscribed on the bells of the horses, and the cooking pots in the LORD's house will be like the sacred bowls in front of the altar” (Zech. 14:20). Let us look forward to that day . This post coordinates with today's reading in the T...

“And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patient waiting for Christ” (2 Thessalonians 3:5 KJV). “But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body” (Philippians 3:20-21). “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:11-13). “They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath” (1 Thessalonians 1:9b-10). The common theme in these verses is waiting . We are to ...

Here is an all-inclusive verse of Scripture. It was written to the Thessalonians, but I think it means us, too. “Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess. 5:23). The God of peace Himself—wonderful. Sanctify you completely—that means us. He will make us completely holy. Spirit, soul, and body—we are tripartite. “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship” (Rom. 12:1). This tells us that our bodies are living and holy sacrifices. Both of the texts teach us that our bodies will be holy. God Himself will make them holy, and we are to present them as a holy, living sacrifice. This post coordinates with today's reading in the To the Word! Bible Reading Challenge . If you are not in a daily reading pla...

“As for me, I will always have hope; I will praise you more and more. My mouth will tell of your righteous deeds, of your saving acts all day long—though I know not how to relate them all. I will come and proclaim your mighty acts, Sovereign LORD; I will proclaim your righteous deeds, yours alone. Since my youth, God, you have taught me, and to this day I declare your marvelous deeds. Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, my God, till I declare your power to the next generation, your mighty acts to all who are to come” (Psalm 71:14-18). I came across this paragraph in 1979 when Bessie and I were in Vancouver, BC. It has been my life verse since then—the next generation! As I look at Christian history, it seems to be history that only takes care of the present generation, not the next one. The seventeenth century in England and Scotland was a time of revival until there was a Christian king after the glorious revolution of 1688. The next two generations were of great moral...

 One of my favorite verses in the Bible is Psalm 68:11: “The Lord announced the word, and great was the company of those who proclaimed it.” The Lord announced the word, and a great company proclaimed the word. It was a great company then; let us pray that it will be a great company now. “Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field’” (Matthew 9:37-38). Pray and proclaim and pray for more proclaimers. This post coordinates with today's reading in the To the Word! Bible Reading Challenge . If you are not in a daily reading plan, please join us at TotheWord.com . We would love to have you reading with us.